Is the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, at the Centre of the Electoral List Abuse?

Free and open elections are central to a healthy democracy. The electoral process is by its very nature separate from the politicians. The electoral process has to be separate from the politicians and their politics for the elections to be fair and transparent.

With the recent announcement of a breach to the privacy of 3 million Albertans who are on the electoral list, I wonder if the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith is at the Centre of this Electoral List Abuse?

Danielle Smith has been playing her ‘separatist’ politics in a less than proper fashion … she strikes me as being like former BC Premiers Glen Clark and Christy Clark.

Glen Clark was replaced by the BC Attorney General, the Hon. Ujjal Dosanjh, after Premier Clark acted in an ultra vires fashion and tried to usurp the authority of Canada’s Parliament. He tried to play a game of last man standing with the Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien … not very smart of Mr. Clark! Mr. Dosanjh later served in Canada’s House of Commons.

Christy Clark was left with a minority Government after she became embroiled in ethnic vote getting. I had publicly asked her not to do this and well … when she had tea with the Lt. Governor of BC and asked for a continuation of a mandate, she was asked by the Lt. Governor of BC why she had not followed my advice and … wait for it … then disrespected me in front of the Lt. Governor of BC.

That same day the ‘other guys’ were invited to form a Government. Our present Premier was the Attorney General of the next Provincial Government in BC after Christy Clark.

You may have noticed a pattern here. When politicians overstep their authority, when they act in an ultra vires fashion, one mechanism that sets things right is that the Chief Law Enforcement officer of the Province, the Attorney General, steps in to insure Canadian laws are being abided by and respected.

At this point in time it is uncertain whether the Attorney General of the Province of Alberta is in a position to undertake a review of the Electoral Lists issue in the Province of Alberta in a judicious fashion.

I invite the Attorney General of Canada’s Parliament to seek an answer to this question. Is the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith at the Centre of this Electoral List Abuse?

This is not a minor issue but a rather obscene one. I have seen this first hand …

About fifteen years ago, while doing work on a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia, I was asked for coffee by a concerned group of Graduate Students. There was an American chap, a friend of Physicist Doug Bonn’s Graduate Student Darren Peats, who was keen to run for the position of Graduate Student President.

The problem with this American chap is that he had been an electoral officer for the previous Graduate Student Society election and had retained a copy of the electoral lists.

Can you see where I am going with this? Once this short story is recounted you might do an internet search and you should be able to fit together the pieces.

I was asked to stand in as interim GSS president and act as a lightening rod, so that the graduate students at UBC could have a fair and open election. What was Darren Peats and his American friend up to? This will be apparent in short order as well.

I first chatted with the American chap and suggested to him that it is improper for him to run because he had been electoral officer. His response … Foxtrot Oscar …

Then I publicly invited graduate students to come out and vote. He did not want to see any publicity done hoping to achieve his mischief ‘under the radar.’ I publicly stated it was improper for this American chap to run for the post of GSS President. He responded by dragging my name through the mud. Something both undignified and unscholarly

On election day a fine candidate was elected. This new President sent me an email saying that the American chap had threatened me with physical violence and I should not attend the swearing in but instead duck for cover. Perhaps I should have passed this email along to the RCMP and ask them to deal with this threatened violence.

Some weeks later I was not surprised to see this American chap taken into custody by the RCMP detachment at UBC. It seems he had started a ‘protest fire’ on campus and when the UBC fire Department attended and asked him to put the fire out he told them … wait for … Foxtrot Oscar. When the fire department set their hose to the ‘protest fire’ he interfered with them and well that is when this American chap was taken into custody by the RCMP detachment at UBC.

UBC ought to have expelled him. What was Darren and his American friend up to?

I am the eminence gris between the new Ike Barber Learning Center at UBC. At its opening, towards the end of the afternoon when Ike Barber and I were chatting amiably who shows up and acts like a ‘bull in a China shop’ but Darren Peats.

Ike and I had just shared a laugh as to how ‘a party had been thrown in his honour but it took him so long to get to the food table there was nothing left but the dregs.

‘Dregs’ had just left his lips when Darren Peats arrived, turned his back on Ike and then began to disrespect me. Yea … it is some people’s style to be polite, and others not. Ike witnessed the comic drama and his jaw hit the floor.

“What the FXXK are you doing here?”

“”I was invited to the opening of the Ike Barber Learning… and you?”

wait for … Foxtrot Oscar.

I smiled at Ike and he knew it was time for him to disappear. When he was out of earshot distance I told Darren Peats his behavior was both undignified and unscholarly. I then meandered down to chat with a few colleagues and friends before I handed a copy of the ceremonial brochure to the UBC President, which had the signatures that I had collected from the Premier, and other dignitaries, including the then UBC President Stephen Toope.

When I went out the back door of the Ike Barber Learning Center to walk to my office in the Physics Building I was swarmed by a mob of Darren Peats compatriots.

What was Darren Peats up to? He and his supervisor, Doug Bonn. wanted a new lab and they knew that if the Department of Physics were renovated there would be no money for their new lab … so they threw me and the Department of Physics under the bus.

When Darren Peats graduated the UBC President Stephen Toope publicly stated that ‘Darren was the reason there was no redevelopment of the Center of UBC,’ including Departments like the Physics Department. This is on the public record.

For a number of years I have proposed a new MAPS building at UBC … Math, Astronomy and Physics … to people like Dr. Ralph Sultan, but it was a non-starter. One of the reasons is the disrespect shown me by a handful of UBC types like Doug Bonn and Darren Peats. Both my Charter Rights and Scholastic Rights had been trampelled by them. Why should the Crown even bother?

Incidentally Dr. Ralph Sultan sat next to me at the opening ceremony of the new Ike Barber Learning Center. After the opening ceremony I took him on a short tour of the new Library. He knew that I had helped UBC and its professors to receive over $ 400 million of project financing, including what was invested into the Ike Barber Learning Center.

You might want to do a due diligence of Dr. Ralph Sultan. He is a real gentleman and I am honoured to be counted among his colleagues and friends.

As a thank you for being the eminence gris behind the Ike Barber Learning Center, the UBC President Stephen Toope invited me to sit on the selection committee for the first librarian to head the IBLC. We chose Dr. Ingrid Parent, a UBC alumni, the former Assistant Deputy Minister of the National Archive and Library of Canada, and someone who was then the President of the International Library Congress. I was her champion on the selection committee.

What does this all have to do with the Premier of Alberta … there are those who think the ends justifies the means … and those that believe the means and the ends have to be the same. Democracy is a precious and fragile thing …

A decade ago I walked away from my Ph.D. at UBC primarily because of a lack of respect by people like Doug Bonn and Darren Peats. I would not want to be a member of any club that has such characters as members.

I am a straight A graduate student and was 95 % completed my Ph.D. in nuclear astrophysics. I am now the Director of the Vancouver Institute for Advanced Studies. Perhaps sometime in the future I may decide to apply for a Commonwealth Scholarship so that I can complete my Ph.D. at Cambridge or Oxford in the UK (I know the King, Charles III, would like that).

The last visit by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to UBC, was the day prior to the announcement of the creation of the Ike Barber Learning Centre. Her visit was of my doing. I am a former naval officer with the Royal Canadian Navy, a loyal subject of the Crown and a friend to Canada’s Parliament. I am honoured to be counted as a trusted friend of the Crown and the Canadian Parliament.

In writing this short article… what say I have a bit of fun with Douggie and Darren …

Hey Mr. Premier of British Columbia, what say we build a new Math and Astronomy building at UBC …?